This is our call sheet and Risk Assessment. The call sheet helped us organise where we were planning the shoot and and at what time would do so. It was filled out before we rented our camera equipment so that we were able to pre-plan the shoots and make sure everyone involved knew who was responsible for the equipment.
The second scene in the bedrooom was to show what 
happened earlier that day, flashing back to where he is fine to further represent him as a normal kid. Also the mirror shot and his arrogant remark was to show the type of charcter he is, and his peers' facial expressions show what people think of him. We did all our needed to shots to the level that we wanted, which left us adequate time to edit it.
Michael was an average teenage boy, after a game of 5-a-side football in the local sports centre he found himself alone walking through some woods. After being chased down and killed, the investigation starts. Michael seemed a popular boy, but with his arrogance was not loved by all, which found out the hard way. This leads to an investigation into who was the murderer. Chief inspector Patterson is a ruthless man who is renowned for getting to the bottom of every case, he sets out to find the murderer but it becomes more of a challenge when numerous suspects are brought forward with no alibi and big motives.
Genre
· This film comes under the ‘Crime Thriller’ genre
· The opening sequence follows residual expectations of the crime thriller genre as it starts with a crime, the manufacturing and exportation of drugs. There is a clue to one of the main characters in the film early on as it shows how one man owns the drugs and is making sure that everything is going to plan.
· The text seems to stay within the boundaries of the genre as most crime thrillers involve a crime, the laundering of drugs, and have a main ‘bad guy’ who the audience will be against.
Film Language
· During this sequence, there are a lot of props used to convey that it is a crime thriller. The fact that the opening shot is of a scientist manufacturing drugs shows that the film will involve these, the opening screen tells the audience early what is going on as it states the destination, ecstasy lab. The use of coffins signifies death, filling them with drugs is ironic as they can be the cause of it. The first shot of the owner of the drugs is of him in an expensive looking house, this shows the audience that he has lots of money and usually some sort of power comes with money.
· There are a lot of CUs of the drugs and manufacturing process, this helps to show exactly what they are as the pills are small. The camera looks up when pointing at the man in charge of the drugs to show how he has a status and power.
· During this sequence, there is background music, this ads depth the scene and also tension. The quick tempo of the music allows it to fit in with the fast cutting rate.
· The first line of dialog used is ‘ya, all this is under control’, this signifies that an operation is being performed and that it has some level of importance. The other line of dialog used allows the audience to realise who is behind the operation, and the money stated lets them know that he is very rich and so powerful.
· The director uses a blue filter at the start when showing the pills, this ads some sort of disorientation, it also means that the opening shots have some colour not just grey and white.
Narrative
· The narrative starts with the manufacturing of drugs and goes to show them being transported and moved to a different country. This explains that the story will probably be about those drugs and what is happening around them.
· The audience in the narrative if positioned against the drug owner, the way he looks and sounds makes him easy to dislike, also the way he mentions his money could make people jealous as he is very rich.
· The major themes in the opening sequence is crime, from the use of drugs you can tell that the film will be based around these and as the genre is crime thriller you can tell there is going to be some sort of investigation or arrest over these drugs.
· Tension is kept through the sequence through the use of music, also the fact that it can be seen that a lot of drugs are being produced, the use of long shots of the drugs show this. The lack of dialog builds tension as when you see people working together u expect them to be talking but there are only two lines of dialog in the whole opening sequence.
Representation & Ideology
· The social groups represented in the sequence are youths as they are most commonly thought of as involved with drugs, also with criminals as they are represented in the fact that there is a mass crime taking place.
· During the Process of making drugs, there is never any sign of the feel of wrong doing in any of the characters. This backs up the ideology that criminals don’t really care about the crime, just the money. It shows that the values of the criminals are low and that they only care about themselves and no one else.
· In the opening part of the film, the general characteristics of crime thriller films are followed; these are usually setting up the crime and introducing main characters. Although some crime thrillers reveal the plot early and then build up to it, in this film, the plot is not reviled in the opening sequence so the audience are kept in suspense over what will happen.
Media Audiences
· I feel the target audience for this film is young males, as the certificate is 15; I feel the main age range is 15-21.
· One possible way audiences read the text will be that they see that a crime is going to take place so they understand immediately what is going on. People could watch the opening of the film and feel that violence will be involved as that’s what drugs can lead too.
· When I see this text, I read it as a regular crime thriller. I see the drugs and hear the music and it seems similar to most other films in the genre, I feel my age and gender does not affect this much neither does my background.
Institutional context
· In this film there are 2 big name actors used, Martin Lawrence and Will Smith are both police officers, the fact that the two most famous actors are both on the same side positions the audience with them as they can relate to them and are familiar with them.
· This film was distributed by ‘Sony Pictures’. This makes it an industrial film.
This film is a sequel to ‘Bad Boys’, this means that the name is already familiar. The use of viral marketing with a website and trailers sent out helped advertising the film
· Action Thriller - e.g. Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum, 2002)
· Conspiracy Thriller - e.g. JFK (Oliver Stone, 1991)
· Crime Thriller - e.g. Inside Man (Spike Lee, 2006)
· Disaster thriller - e.g. Poseidon (Wolfgang Peterson, 2006)
· Drama thriller - e.g. The Prestige (Christopher Nolan, 2006)
· Horror thriller - e.g. 28 Days Later (Danny Boyle,2002)
· Erotic thriller - e.g. Basic Instinct (Paul Verhoeven, 1992)
· Legal thriller - e.g. Michael Clayton (Tony Gilroy,2007)
· Political thriller - e.g. Munich (Steven Spielberg, 2005)
· Psychological thriller – e.g. The Beach (Danny Boyle, 2000)
· Medical thriller - e.g. Awake (Joby Harold,2007)
· Spy thriller - e.g. Mission Impossible (Brian De Palma,1996)
· Techno-thriller -e.g. The Hunt for Red October (John McTiernan,1990)
· Religious thriller –e.g. The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown, 2003)
2. For our film we are following the crime thriller sub genre and here are some films that can help us to obtain our complete idea:
Inside Man (Spike Lee, 2006) – The Inside Man is a very clever film
and although our film will not be a heist like this it has some good techniques that we can work from, the voiceover style of the man talking about what happened before it has happened in the film, having the end at the start. This can be seen in throughout the Inside Man Trailer.
Taken (Pierre Morel, 2008) – The film Taken is more of an action thriller however it is quite a dark film with a tone that we would like, it is shown in theTaken Trailer. The music in the trailer is the same kind of effect that we want to have in our opening sequence. The music together with the fast cutting rate gives the clip a montage edit that we hope to achieve in our opening sequence.
Phone Booth (Joel Schumacher, 2002) – I like this film because of the simplicity of the location and how effective it is. I feel this film has inspired our film sequence because in the Phone Booth Trailer there is a high cutting rate in and out of the titles which is what we intend to do. Also this has helped us develop the idea of putting a phone conversation into our sequence.
3. A Typical Narrative of a Thriller is to have the protagonist and the antagonist having their feud throughout the film for example Batman: Dark Knight with ‘Batman’ and the ‘Joker’. The narrative would generally end with the protagonist winning. To create enigma or suspense in our opening sequence we could employ this by revealing the antagonist to the audience. We could also use other conventions of thrillers, e.g. action and a fast cutting rate.
4. For this type of film there are generally the following types of characters: Protagonist, Antagonist, Police/Detective (with one main policeman), a girlfriend. In our film we so far only have the ideas involving the criminal and the police however as we develop our idea we may introduce more characters.
5. Typical locations of a thriller films are in urban settings e.g. ‘Die Hard’ in an office building in LA. They are generally in major cities and involve money. They are made here because of the high population and all of the resources in a city, banks, etc. So as most films involve money and heists it is the ideal location. However we plan to take it out of the urban setting and have the majority of filming in a woodland area on a gloomy windy day which will give it a kind of chilling edge that will give the film darkness and help build suspense.
6. Classic iconography in a thriller would most likely be weapons, normally guns, used most commonly in "action thriller" films. A high tempo would be associated with this genre; a victim is often involved also. In action thrillers fighting is generally present e.g. ‘Taken’ he uses his own skills in combat more than guns.
7. In this type of thriller people are often well dressed in suits etc. E.g. in the Inside Man, this gives a very confident and composed tone of a character, it helps the viewer see what kind of character he is. However in other films costume is completely different and the villain may wear a hooded top and look very anti-social.
8. In different thrillers lighting and colour can be used in different ways, however it is always vital in the effectiveness of the film. Villains are generally lit with low key lighting to represent their secretiveness with silhouettes, etc. In many films colour is very important because of the graphics involved in a high action scene with explosions etc, where it has to look as realistic as possible. Particular colours will connote different things:
Red – blood, danger
Black – dark, death, evil
White – light, good, happy
Orange – energy, enthusiasm
Blue – peace
Pink – feminine
9. Fonts for the opening credits and titles are very important for the tone of a film. Here are some examples of suitable fonts for a thriller:
Our chosen genre is Thriller; we are going to follow the sub-genre of crime thriller, this is one of many sub-genres. The thriller genre usually involves some sort of action or investigation, usually with a ‘hard man’ as the lead character. The genre involves many sub-genres including:
· Crime thrillers
· Action thrillers
· Physiological thrillers
· Disaster thrillers
· Drama thriller
· Conspiracy thriller
Some thrillers that I find interesting are:
· S.W.A.T
· 16 Blocks
· Inside Man
· Fast & the Furious
· Lucky number slevin
· Miami Vice
· Reservoir dogs
· The Transporter
· Phone Booth
· Bourne Identity
· LA Confidential
Pick three of these and outline specific techniques or style which you think might be useful for what you are planning.
During the opening of ‘Lucky Number Slevin’, I like the idea of the titles being separated with lines of action and shots in the middle; this is useful as this is part of our idea for the film opening we will be producing. There is no dialog within the first 3 minutes of a film, only low music and during the titles, some non-digetic sounds of a sports commentator. All these sounds add tension and mystery because the audience haven’t been shown anything to give them meaning. The opening shot of the telephone also seems odd as it seems to have no relevance to what is going on during the opening minutes. so the main thing I like about this opening Is the montage editing intermingled with the title clips as this is one of our ideas we may use.
L.A. Confidential has a slightly different opening; it starts off like an advert for Los Angeles by explaining how wonderful and amazing it all is. With upbeat music and lots of colours it seems to say nothing will go wrong, but towards the end of the voice over there is a twist when it is mentioned that there is a man who runs crime all over the state. The way it is all mentioned makes it seem not as bad as the voice seems happy and light hearted. Once again this opening is shot as a montage which is how we are looking to shoot ours.
What is a typical narrative for this genre of film? How could this be set up in the opening to create enigma or suspense?
Typical narratives of thriller films, or crime thriller films, are that there is a man or group that commit an action that is against the law, sometimes it is drugs or murder, but it all ends up with some kind of authority involvement. Usually there are two sides, the good side and the bad side, oh which usually the good side come out on top. Although there are two sides, not always is one for the law. In films like lock, stock and two smoking barrels there are two sides but both against the law, the audience is positioned with one side always as it gives them someone or some people to root for.
What kinds of characters are conventional to this type of genre? Identify archetypal heroes or villains, stock characters?
Usually in Crime thrillers, the main characters are the ‘hard men’ who are either investigating or find themselves involved in the action. Bruce Willis, a detective, was the main character in die hard who always found himself in tough areas.
Sometimes you find that it’s a regular person who gets dragged into the situation, for example Colin Farrell in phone booth. The archetypal hero is usually an attractive male while the villain usually looks different and/or strange. This allows you to judge the character by their looks as it is easy to tell which character you should be positioned with. Other stock characters that exist are usually close friends or family to the main character and sometimes work associates.
What are typical locations or settings for this genre?
The locations used often seem to be large with a lot of hiding places or places to run so there is always a way of escaping.
What iconography would you expect to see in this genre?
Guns are seen a lot in thriller films as they usually represent crime and violence. Also the concept of money or in the hunt for money is iconic in thriller films as it has the connotation of greed or the need to be rich.
Find examples of suitable costume
How is lighting/colour used? What effects would you want to create with lighting? Identify connotations of particular colours?
Lighting in thriller films is like in any other film, it has to be done right. In some sequences there is great use of shadow to either hide someone’s identity or to add tension to the shot. Lighting can make characters look suspicious or mysterious; this means that the audience can see early on what the character is all about
Find examples of fonts which would be suitable for this genre for title sequence
Dog Soldiers (www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2X5RL-U8ec)
Opens with a plain black background with white credits fading in and out in capital letters; this is then followed by a sound bridge of running water giving anticipation of what is going to be seen. The river fades in and Scotland appears in the corner in a computerised font and sound. Cut to LS of man filling up a bowl with water and then another cut to MS of man walking in the woods past a fire. Pans round following man to show a tent and his partner, the man takes his hat off to revile his very short hair, his army like hair connotes a ‘hard man’ status. Cut to his partner to show his company, cut to CU of partners face showing happiness of the time off work he has got to spend time with her, cut to CU of males face showing the relationship between the two, cut to both of them sitting close together with fire in front of them. A cut to a MS of the couple so show the actions of the female, CU of male face shows surprise and shock as he is given his gift, the CU of the blade further backs up the idea of the man being part of the army. CU of the female face cuts quickly to male face showing the pairs emotions. The scene then cuts to the pair in the tent as the light outside seems to have darkened, the camera pans to the couple getting intimate showing there compassion for each other, the sound of the zip of the tent opening causes a cut to the faces of the two people in terror as they realise something is out there, cuts to a CU of the zip moving, the fast cutting rate after this and the unsteady camera, when the female is dragged from the tent shows the horror and panic they go through.
The opening starts with silence as the credits take place and then a sound bridge occurs towards the end to add continuity, the computer noise of Scotland appearing is added over the top of the initial background music of water running and birds singing, the man’s footsteps are also heard above this noise and his voice loudest of all, the sound s of the fire and cups on the floor add realism to the sequence, this is helped by the constant background noise of the fire. There is new music playing as the woman gives the gift to the man, the music can cause tension due to its slow tempo and high pitch. This music then goes into the next cut of them in a tent; the pitch seems to drop as the music gets deeper, this can be hear as a sign of danger as in the music in Jaws. The music then hits a long low note as we hear the zip of the tent. The sounds of the creature are heard level with the screams and panting of the humans trying to stay alive.
The whole sequence is continuity edited involving mostly fades, this sequence has around 30-40 shots, although most of these happen in the last 30 seconds of the opening as the cutting rate increase dramatically, the changes of cutting rate means audiences don’t get bored of the slow cuts and regular rhythm but also have to time to settle in between the areas of quick cutting. The beast that takes the female in this is not actually seen by the camera, this adds mystery and will hook audiences as they will want to know what or who took her.
Thrillers often take place in mainly urban areas, often in foreign countries or unfamiliar places. The heroes in most thrillers are frequently "hard men" accustomed to danger, e.g. law enforcement officers, spies, soldiers, etc. However, they also can be ordinary citizens drawn into danger by accident e.g. In the film Phone Booth. While most heroes have traditionally been men, women lead characters have become more common, e.g. Linda Hamilton in The Terminator.
There are many different sub-categories for the thriller genre, these include: Action thrillers, Crime thrillers, disaster thrillers and many more. There are some well known thrillers movies including the Bourne Identity, staring Matt Damon, which have gone on to become a huge success creating a trilogy.
